With ever-increasing demands for greater rigour and transparency in evaluating widening participation and equity initiatives in higher education, there is an ongoing need to improve evaluation practice and build the skills and knowledge of staff to undertake effective evaluation work.

Peer evaluation can help by providing external feedback and objectivity from colleagues with similar challenges and expertise – enabling improved practice, transparency and accountability. It also can increase capacity and consistency by fostering a collaborative culture based on reciprocal feedback.

This project developed a pilot Peer Evaluation approach which could be adopted by others in the sector to develop evaluation evidence on access, success and progression provision designed to improve student experience – in particular for those students from under-represented groups.  

The project team developed guidelines to support organisations in commissioning or participating in peer review evaluation. You can access the guidelines below, which also include several useful templates for developing and evaluating your own peer review approaches.

The final report shares full details of the project, including an overview of the pilot peer evaluation course that the team ran. It considers the challenges and opportunities that using peer review brings. You can also access the executive summary to get a quick overview of the key points from the final report.

Download the curriculum outline of the pilot course that the project team ran to consider whether similar training could apply to your provider.

View the slides from this project’s launch event, where Annette Hayton, Senior Research Fellow, University of Bath, presented the findings from this project at an online event in March 2024.

Project lead: University of Bath

Project partners: NERUPI Network, Bath Spa University, HEAT (Higher Education Access Tracker), London School of Economics, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Derby, University of East Anglia and University of Kent